Civil War

It's on! It's been a long time coming, but the GOP's war for the soul of the party appears to have spilled out into the open with the decision of California Congressman Kevin McCarthy opting to bow out of the race for the Speaker of the House position that John Boehner recently resigned.

Though McCarthy was expected to win the vote, the decision of the extreme Talibanist wing of the GOP's House delegation to not support McCarthy apparently played a role in the decision. Even prior to the announcement, I wondered whether McCarthy could effectively lead given the unrest of the Talibanists. As the decision shows, he apparently realized not. Though he clearly had ambitions for the job, I give McCarthy credit for being smart enough to not take a job that he would have entered from a position of weakness. The irony of all this is that McCarthy has played a major role in increasing the rightward tilt of the GOP in Congress.

However, what we have is a case of the tail wagging the dog--is the GOP going to allow its extreme nutcase right wing (numbering about 40) take the party hostage?

From the L.A. Times: 

Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, who was backing McCarthy, said he warned Republicans that “those who wanted to take down John Boehner will frag the next guy and that's what we saw just happened .... I'm not going to support anyone running for speaker who is going to appease the rejectionist wing of this party.”

Of course, the chickens are simply coming home to roost. Having cynically exploited the crazed right wing of its party for political gain, the GOP is now having to fulfill promises it never intended on keeping.